Earth Day 2024: Google Doodle features aerial photos of planet's natural beauty, biodiversity

This annual Earth Day Doodle features aerial photos of the planet's natural beauty and biodiversity and reminds us of the importance of protecting it for future generations.

Today's Earth Day Doodle illustrates how individuals and groups may work together to protect the environment. The Google letters showcase a few places where people, organisations, and governments work together daily to save the planet's natural beauty, biodiversity, and resources. These examples serve as a reminder that much more effort has to be made to address the loss of biodiversity and the climate challenge, even though they also provide us reason for hope and optimism.

Earth Day 2024 Google Doodle Letters

G: Turks and Caicos Islands. The islands are home to important biodiversity areas with conservation efforts aimed at addressing ongoing environmental challenges, including protecting natural resources and reefs and restoring endangered species like the Turks and Caicos Islands rock iguana.

O: Scorpion Reef National Park, Mexico. Also known as Arrecife de Alacranes, this is the largest reef in the southern Gulf of Mexico and a UNESCO biosphere reserve. The marine protected area serves as a refuge for complex coral and several endangered bird and turtle species.

O: Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland. Established as a national park in 2008 after decades of advocacy, this UNESCO World Heritage Site protects the ecosystem in and around Europe’s largest glacier. The mix of volcanoes and glacial ice produces rare landscapes and flora.

G: Jaú National Park, Brazil. Also known as Parque Nacional do Jaú, this is one of South America’s largest forest reserves and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, it protects a huge range of species, including the margay, jaguar, giant otter, and the Amazonian manatee.

L: Great Green Wall, Nigeria. Started in 2007, this African Union-led initiative is restoring land affected by desertification across the width of Africa, planting trees and other vegetation while implementing sustainable land management practices. This also provides the people and communities in the area with increased economic opportunities, food security, and climate resilience.

E: Pilbara Islands Nature Reserves, Australia. Located by one of the Pilbara Island Nature Reserves, one of 20 nature reserves in Australia that help protect fragile ecosystems, increasingly rare natural habitats, and several threatened or endangered species—including multiple species of marine turtles, shorebirds, and seabirds.

Images courtesy of Airbus, CNES/Airbus, Copernicus, Maxar Technology, and USGS/NASA Landsat

Around the world, people are increasingly coming to Google to search for ways to live more sustainably. Today over a billion people globally will observe Earth Day, a reminder to practice sustainable habits year-round and to continue the work needed to conserve water, electricity, and other resources.